This application relates to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/912030, xe2x80x9cPrediction Based Optimization of a Semiconductor Supply Chain Using an Adaptive Real-time Work-in-progress Tracking System,xe2x80x9d by Michael E. Orshansky and Klaus ten Hagen, filed on even date herewith, which subject matter is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to efficient operation of a semiconductor supply chain, and more particularly, to providing a work-in-progress (WIP) tracking system and generating a variety of WIP tracking reports and advance notices, in order to coordinate different vendors in the semiconductor supply chain.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical semiconductor manufacturing process includes multiple phases. For example, a wafer foundry (or fab) begins with raw silicon wafers and fabricates integrated circuits on these wafers. A test vendor may test the integrated circuits and mark the good die on the wafer. An assembly/packaging vendor may dice the wafer into separate die and assemble the good die into various packages with appropriate electrical connections. A final test vendor may perform final testing of the finished packaged part to make sure that the chips are operating according to specification. A shipping vendor may transport the WIP between the different supply chain vendors and finally distribute the finished good parts to their intended destination. Thus, the semiconductor supply chain may include many separate entities, all of which shall be referred to as vendors.
As the semiconductor manufacturing process becomes more complex, companies in this industry are specializing. As a result, customers, such as fabless semiconductor companies and integrated device manufacturers, are using an increasing number of semiconductor supply chain vendors for prototype development or mass production of integrated circuits. In other words, generally speaking, the semiconductor supply chain contains an increasing number of vendors. This raises new difficulties in coordinating the entire chain, and leads to complex logistical problems so that many steps in the design and manufacturing of chips are dominated by queuing, scheduling and preparation time. This is especially true for very successful foundries that are being completely focused on wafer manufacturing and have high stakes in maintaining predictable flow of goods to and from them. Thus, it would be beneficial for semiconductor companies to efficiently utilize their supply chain as this can lead to shortened product cycles and enhanced responsiveness to market demand.
However, one characteristic of the semiconductor industry is that vendors in a semiconductor supply chain are often located in different time zones, in different countries, or speak different languages, making person-to-person communications difficult. In addition, manufacturing data and other information provided by the vendors may be in incompatible formats or have other deficiencies such as providing unreliable prediction of product quantity or shipment date. The resulting difficulty in effective communication and information sharing throughout the supply chain can cause significant barriers to productivity improvement and adaptation to dynamic market demand. Substantial semiconductor manufacturing cycle time is consumed by the queuing, scheduling and preparation processes at the supply chain vendors. At the same time, the market is continuously demanding increased productivity and faster response time. As a result, it is becoming increasingly significant for the semiconductor industry to provide advanced methods to coordinate the operations of the supply chain vendors to increase efficiency.
However, there are significant barriers to doing so. In the semiconductor industry, the supply chain vendors and their end customers are frequently competitors. As a result, supply chain vendors may be justifiably reluctant to disclose large amounts of information to the customers and customers may be similarly reluctant, as this information may reveal significant information about the vendors"" or customers"" businesses. In addition, information given to a supply chain vendor must be reliable and preferably should be presented in a concise and meaningful way in order to be most useful to the vendor. This often does not happen.
In one approach to supply chain coordination, certain vendors have proposed a community information center model to exchange manufacturing data and information with a view to strengthening collaboration among vendors. Under this model, participating vendors send all of their manufacturing data and information to an information hub and retrieve data pertinent to products in their supply chain. However, this model faces considerable obstacles to adoption. For example, there are concerns regarding revealing supply chain vendors and customers"" confidential information in the process of pooling the manufacturing data at one location and allowing unrestricted access to the data, particularly since supply chain vendors and customers may be competitors. An open information sharing process will give rise to a strong reluctance among the supply chain vendors and customers to participate in information exchange or sharing. Further, such a model requires complex business-to-business integration in data connectivity and interchangeability. The implementation and maintenance of such a system would be both costly and difficult. As a result of these deficiencies, this model has failed to achieve widespread adoption.
Therefore, in view of the reality of the semiconductor industry, what is needed is a system and method to coordinate operations of semiconductor supply chain vendors while addressing the needs and concerns of customers and supply chain vendors. In particular, it would be beneficial to establish a sustained and targeted information channel between vendors in the supply chain and to provide various advance notices to vendors.
The present invention overcomes limitations and disadvantages of current semiconductor supply chain management methods by providing a work-in-progress (WIP) tracking system to generate a variety of WIP tracking reports and/or advance notices to supply chain vendors and/or customers to coordinate the semiconductor supply chain.
In one embodiment, the present invention allows a significant reduction in cycle-time of a semiconductor supply chain by the use of advance notices. In one implementation, the advance notices include messages to supply chain vendors predicting how much material will arrive at the supply chain vendor at a certain time. As a result, the supply chain vendors can optimize their processing schedule and reduce the impact caused by any unpredictable incidents or errors occurring on other supply chain vendors.
In one embodiment, the advance notices are generated by a WIP tracking system. The WIP tracking system receives manufacturing data and information from supply chain vendors (WIP updates) and processes the WIP updates to determine whether to generate advance notices to supply chain vendors. In one approach, the WIP tracking system includes a data representation of the supply chain. The WIP updates are used to revise the representation, and the process for generating advance notices is based on analysis of the data representation according to rules adapted to the needs of the downstream supply chain vendors. In one embodiment, an advance notice is generated if the WIP analysis indicates that a triggering event will occur within a predetermined amount of time (e.g., work at one vendor will be completed and delivered to the next vendor within x days).
To improve the reliability and accuracy of the advance notices, one embodiment of the WIP tracking system performs consistency checking of WIP updates to detect and prevent missing or misleading WIP updates, thus increasing the accuracy of the data representation and also the advance notices. In another embodiment, the WIP tracking system derives statistically qualified advance notices with respect to product arrival time and quantity, again improving the reliability of the advance notices. Another embodiment of the WIP tracking system provides an alert engine that detects significant deviations from the last revised plan in schedule and/or quantity and by that increases customers"" confidence in the accuracy of the advance notices. If an alert is generated, the data representation is revised in order to derive a more reliable estimation of WIP and final product arrival time and quantity, including for the purpose of more accurate advance notice generation.
The generation of advance notices results in numerous benefits. As mentioned previously, advance notices generally increase the efficiency of the semiconductor supply chain, by allowing vendors to schedule work and allocate resources in advance. Furthermore, by using a separate WIP tracking system, WIP updates which could contain sensitive vendor information are not shared en masse with all other vendors and customers. Rather, the WIP updates are analyzed and only the relevant portion (e.g., an advance notice) is made available only to those vendors which are affected. The other information is retained by the WIP tracking system and is not forwarded. Thus, advance notices enable quality information exchange between potentially competitive vendors in the supply chain while ensuring confidentiality of their business practices. As a final example, by distilling the received WIP updates into advance notices, the WIP tracking system also concentrates the useful information sent to a vendor. It is easier for a vendor to understand a simple advance notice rather than wade through large volumes of raw WIP updates.
The features and advantages described in the specification are not all inclusive, and particularly, many additional features and advantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings, specification, and claims hereof. Moreover, it should be noted that the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter, resort to the claims being necessary to determine such inventive subject matter.